Customer called this morning and said their sprinkler air compressor quit. Their usual guy was "on vacation" (not answering his phone) and they asked if one of my guys could have a look at it. He'd called a couple of companies in the Piss Pages and got quotes as high as $1200.00 to replace the compressor because (according to the nimrods he called who didn't even come out to LOOK at it) it had obviously failed.
So, I went to the site. Pretty "ritzy" condo development in the West End (we do the access control, enterphone and CCTV). Sure enough the circuit breaker kept tripping every time I reset it. Turning the motor by hand worked find (so it wasn't the motor). Trying to turn the compressor flywheel was a tad more difficult. When I finally got it to turn it starts spitting water out of the crank-case breather. So, I decided to get a little dirtier and opened the oil drain. It was full of water. Now that is not supposed to be there.
Checked the check valve. It's working fine and holding the pressure in the system at just over 20 PSI. There's a little red line marked on the gauge that I assume is the "tripping pressure" for the dry valve. It's at just under 20 PSI (I'm assuming the tech who marked it was trying for the 20 PSI hatch). I filled the crank case with new oil, put the belt back on and turned on the breaker. Everything works. Pressure's back to normal, and I got a big "thank you" from my customer (who's out a two hour service call and has now told me I have to hire some sprinkler and fire alarm techs because he's giving all his business to me). Rats! First thing I gotta do when I get back to the office is find my own copy of the Piss Pages... :-)